Did Lincoln Cause Of War

Lincoln was extremely timid and self-conscious when it came to emancipation. He was worried about how his decisions on the topic would be perceived rather than what would actually come of them. He also spent a lot of his time trying to soothe political egos rather than coming up with policies. Lincoln worked slowly and cautiously which was in some ways a detriment to his war efforts. According to Greeley, Lincoln did very little to push emancipation. While policies were enacted to emancipate slaves in certain situations, Lincoln did not encourage the enforcement of them. As a strong abolitionist leader, Greeley was certain that that slavery was the cause of the war and abolishing it would effectively turn the war in the Union's favor. To Greeley, Lincoln was prolonging the war and putting the Union at a disadvantage while Lincoln thought he was preserving the Union by avoiding emancipation for as long as possible. Lincoln’s lack of transparency about his eventual plans to emancipate were also a mistake. He put a lot of energy in trying to discretely allude to this plans which many critics did not even pick up on. He could have been upfront which would have significantly decreased the amount of backlash and criticism. Yes, this was a political choice to make emancipation seem like an …show more content…
His lack of action was frustrating since emancipation was so clearly inevitable. Lincoln’s hints towards emancipation were so subtle that even a smart man like Douglass could not pick up on them. Therefore, the constant effort he put into alluding to his proclamation were useless. If the people he wanted to pick on them could not, what was the point of dropping them in the first place? Lincoln should saved his energy and confided in his critics (obviously easier said than done). Lincoln did not make clear was he was waiting for. If he did, he likely would have had a lot more support. Yet again, that was a political choice Lincoln